Two Republican House Members were swatted on Christmas Day. Someone called 911 around 2 pm and reported a shooting at Rep. Brandon Williams’ house. Fortunately, police were able to quickly discredit the call.
U.S. Rep. Brandon Williams was the victim of a “swatting” incident on Christmas Day, Cayuga County Sheriff Brian Schenck told The Citizen…
However, officers quickly confirmed the incident to be false, Schenck continued. His office believes the report was made to solicit an immediate response from law enforcement, a crime known as “swatting.”
Rep. Williams thanked the police for their handling of the incident and said he sent them away with homemade cookies.
Our home was swatted this afternoon. Thanks to the Deputies and Troopers who contacted me before arriving.
They left with homemade cookies and spiced nuts! Merry Christmas everyone! pic.twitter.com/uQ2xkzLVJ6
— Rep. Brandon Williams (@RepWilliams) December 25, 2023
Rep. Williams has been in the news a few times lately. He has a pinned tweet from October in which he stool holding an Israeli flag while a group of ceasefire protesters held a sit-in below.
I stand with Israel! pic.twitter.com/a2KdZHuWXk
— Rep. Brandon Williams (@RepWilliams) October 18, 2023
In November a video of Rep. Williams shouting at his chief of staff Michael Gordon circulated online: “You f*** with my family, I’ll end every relationship you have!” he said.
BREAKING EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: @Brandon4ny22 shouts at and threatens his former campaign manager and chief of staff at a holiday charity event in DC. @CitrusTVNews 🚨@RepWilliams: “You F*CK with my family, I’ll end every relationship that you have!” #NY22 pic.twitter.com/VV6SYWevNp
— Luke Radel (@lukeradel) December 1, 2023
A few days later Rep. Williams alleged that two top members of his staff, both of whom he had fired, threatened to retaliate by revealing that his adult daughter had an Only Fans account.
Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.) told POLITICO that his former chief of staff and former legislative director attempted to retaliate against him using his 27-year old daughter’s account on OnlyFans, a popular forum for people to charge for access to sexually explicit content.
According to Williams, the two former staffers, Michael Gordon and Ryan Sweeney, threatened to expose his daughter after Williams fired them…
Williams said that the clash stemmed from a pressure campaign that began after his decision to give Gordon 30 days to find new employment. The ousted aide responded by contacting a GOP campaign consultant close to the lawmaker.
That consultant, Aaron Evans, told POLITICO he went to Williams in recent weeks to relay Gordon’s warning: Before going through with the firing, Gordon said, the lawmaker should think about the potential embarrassment his family would experience if TMZ found out about his daughter’s OnlyFans account.
Gordon has denied the allegations but it sounds like the person he used to relay the warning has outed him. Anyway, if the allegations are true then Rep. Williams had a good reason to get in Gordon’s face.
All of that to say, there’s lots of drama surrounding Rep. Williams at the moment so any number of people might have wanted to see him get swatted. And the media isn’t helping his security situation by posting a photo of his house.
My home was “swatted” on Christmas. Someone hoped police might accidentally kill me and my family.
Today local “news” doxxed us by publishing a photo of my home, why? To make it easier to target my family?
You put my family’s lives at risk. Shame on you https://t.co/3nKMK8Yty7 https://t.co/GBTy1SOoPE
— Rep. Brandon Williams (@RepWilliams) December 26, 2023
Meanwhile in Georgia, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was also swatted on Christmas Day.
I was just swatted.
This is like the 8th time.
On Christmas with my family here.
My local police are the GREATEST and shouldn’t have to deal with this.
I appreciate them so much and my family and I are in joyous spirits celebrating the birth of our savior Jesus Christ!
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) December 25, 2023
In this case, probably because Greene has been a target before, police were turned around before they arrived at the house.
On Monday, 911 dispatch informed officers that a call came through the suicide prevention hotline from a man possibly calling from Rome, New York, claiming he’d shot his girlfriend at Greene’s Georgia address, Rome, Georgia, police information specialist Kelly Madden told CNN on the phone. The caller also had threatened to kill himself.
Rome Police informed Greene’s security team of the phone call while officers were en route to the home, according to Madden, and were told nothing was amiss at the home. Madden said officers were turned around before arriving at the house…
“This isn’t the first time that we have received a call of this nature,” Madden said Monday. “We do have a good relationship with her security detail, and it was determined that there was, in fact, no emergency.”
Just last month a Georgia man named Sean Patrick Cirillo was charged with calling her office and threatening to murder Greene. As you can tell from this recording of the call, he appears to hate her and her entire party.
CNN reported last year that Greene had been swatted more than once:
For the second night in a row, police officers in Rome, Georgia, responded to a ‘swatting’ call this week at the Georgia Republican’s home just before 3 a.m. ET on Thursday, Rome Police said in a statement. Officers had previously responded to Greene’s home early Wednesday morning for a false report of a person shot.
The call “was received on what appeared to be a suicide crisis line from an internet chat,” the statement said. Police also said it was “confirmed this was a second false report.”
Rome Police investigators are working with the Capitol Police on the investigation and are not presently releasing additional information.
Hopefully the people behind these calls can be identified. MTG isn’t my cup of tea but no elected officials deserves to live with this kind of constant harassment and threats.
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